29.9.14

Meet another metal band from Spain, well Barcelona to be specific, it is Kilmara on the spot now. The quintet just release their 3rd full length album titled Love Songs and Other Nightmares. Having already produced two albums before, Kilmara enjoy their mature period as a metal band that really spanned their music styles across the heavy metal genre. Do not see the cover appearances only, which may led you thinking about gothic-esque metal, and also their death-metal sounds band name "Kilmara". Indeed, they are one of multi-styles band that mixed power, heavy, thrash and death metal as they pleased. In short they have something of European meet American things. It may sounds overwhelming and confusing on paper, but Kilmara wrapped them in quite a polished manner.

We start with "Fantasy" which offer grooving guitar riffs as the intro. Sounds very 'European' power but yet we quickly surprised by the 'American' singing styles by the vocalist. Not further away, the arrival of death metal voices in the background blurred the things out. This is the style we need to compromise for the next hour. This opening bring us a reminiscence of Rage and bit of phrases borrowed from as far as Queensryche and Death. "The Devil's Eye" is simpler and straightforward to described. It is kind of '80s thrash metal tune with lower vocals and Slayer-like twin guitar attacks. Indeed this sounds is what they favor. In this similar styles is group of songs : "The Break Up", which is thrash to power with lots of vocal harmonies they toyed out so far; "Cold Rain", intro is catchy, again a baritone voiced in charge separate this song from traditional high pitch power metal. Happened to be their strong cuts; "Nothing to Me", full throttle double pedal attacks but with a vocal that kind of modern and clean. Those who close to European power metal are "Usual Strangers" and the folk and rhythmic "Alpha". The last three songs fall into different feels, from progressive "Insomnia" and "Play to Win", to alternative-stoner "Time Flies". This last song also come in Spanish-Deustch, and it is clear that the song should be enjoyed more in their native language.

We will also found two interesting details about Love Songs and Other Nightmares; Roland Grapow is on board, well as producer or mentor perhaps, and it is released now under Sony Music. Not so clear how the maestro Roland Grapow in influencing their styles (they seems out of ordinary styles, though....). This album should be listening without concerning what the hell the categorization they may fall in. The guys just trying to composed good music, and with their huge library of music, this is a successful one.

28.9.14

The Francesco Artusato Project is exactly your dearest Devil You Know, All Shall Perish guitarist solo memento. Our Dying Sun is his second full length album. It is very much similar to his previous works, combined only guitar instrumental in progressive metal genre. In this eleven tracks of shred guitar, Francesco made it the sounds of destruction, futuristic, industrial and apocalypse theme. You got the idea, well just observe the cover art.

There are not much melodic line here. Songs are dominated by heavy dissonance, low string 'djent' like distortion. The representative track is "Our Dying Sun" for description above. The other landmark point is "Infinite Waves", where the author spare some movement for drum, keyboards and bass to shine. Or maybe listen to "Sleeples Night" where the we got more down to earth leading riffs and melodies. Compared to its predecessor album, Chaos and the Primordial, Our Dying Sun sounds more homogeneous, from song writing to guitar tones. If you like the idea of exploring one hour end-of-the-world theme shred guitar album, this one is for you.

25.9.14

Among many things music can do, it is they bring back memories. Mr.Big, surely the band with big memories inside and their music do brings them back. They are in the mainstream movement of '80s hair metal band. Not only because of "To Be With You", but also because of their amazing discography, that actually span about four to five successful studio albums. The memories of the quartet, Eric, Paul, Billy and Pat together was firm, Richie Kotzen too. Later they are the band that made Farewell Party, yet to come back later, and it was only in 2011. Today, Mr.Big's eight studio album was in our hand, .... the Stories We Could Tell is one kind of story about this amazing band.

Yap, "Gotta Love The Ride" preserved Mr.Big historical sounds. It ride us far away back to the golden era. It has their typical downstroke power chord, smoothly solo, familiar choruses. "I Forget To Breathe" is still fast tempo song, straight forward from verse to choruses all in a quick secession. Kind of blues-rock feel. Don't forget to breathe when it come to the guitar solos. "Fragile" is sounds generic at the start, an AOR feel in mid tempo, but it has power choruses that easy to remember. "Satisfied", is traditionally the one word "-ed" song title and it always belong to excellent guitar leads tunes. Satisfied seems to be a guitar first and sing it later song. Acoustic stories bring down to "The Man Who Has Everything", brings back to every Mr.Big acoustic ballad we ever knew. "The Monster In Me"? is about two monstrous 'leads' instrument, Paul and Billy in action, this song put they battling each other for a spot of "rhythm guitar".

"East/West" is another acoustic intro leads to anthem mid tempo rock song. "Just Let Your Heart Decide" as the title suggest is pretty much Just Take My Heart in sequel. Jump to the last track we got "the Stories We Could Tell" a thick southern blues rock song to close this album. Of course with one wicked live bonuses for a memorable "Addicted To That Rush" , all to reminds us to the great Mr.Big.

This is the album that make you want to call your old buddies from the high school. "... the Stories..." is great album with great concept, it did not loose anything from Mr.Big yet powerful and fresh in writing. It going to please new and old fans. Their chemistry seems unparalleled, with every four of them doing exactly the right things. The real hair metal in revived without the sense rusty or out dated. Even the live track sounds very exciting and new. Welcome back.

01. Gotta Love The Ride
02. I Forget To Breathe
03. Fragile
04. Satisfied
05. The Man Who Has Everything
06. The Monster In Me
07. What If We Were New?
08. East/West
09. The Light Of Day
10. Just Let Your Heart Decide
11. It’s Always About That Girl
12. Cinderella Smile
13. The Stories We Could Tell
14. Addicted To That Rush (live; exclusive bonus track)

24.9.14

In Second Nature, Flying Colors entering their 'casual dating' phase. Just as Mike Portnoy metaphored "... the first album (Flying Colors) was very much a blind date,.. now we know each other and have much more chemistry..." . Now be aware of what they called 'chemistry'. Second Nature is completely different game. The casual dating produced more hardcore prog materials by the quintet. They are still remained the same, Mike Portnoy, Morse and Morse, together with LaRue and Casey McPherson. This is the album for those who loves each of them, from DT fans to Dixie Dregs to Ayreon-like in Neal Morse's style.

"Open Up Your Eyes" is worth a note to see how progressive material may came out from their collaborations since it is in staggering 12 minutes long. This one very much Neal Morse in style. A thick keyboard leads, follows by Portnoy power drumming. Of course Steve did not stay there for nothing, he is not letting Neal get all the fun. Every notes still sounds very Steve Morse, but it is good to see him 'forced' to played in different water. Dave LaRue himself, found nothing 'new' on this as he already done it millions times, perfect groove perfect fill in every moments. The ending of this song sounds like a homage to the Dream Theater traces, perhaps Portnoy's idea.

"Mask Machine" on other is a lighter song. Casey is now backed with the McCrary Sisters to produced this ambitious song where they try to reproduced old '80s cartoon like sounds. The same distortions sounds repeated on "Bombs Away", and again away from their two previous songs. "Bomb Away" is closer and closer to rock song, with vocal came as leading voices. Duo Morse in panning distortion is also a feature here. Now, "The Fury of My Love" is closer to Dream Theater works. There is James LaBrie-things in the vocals and Jordan-things in the keyboards. Just another weird 'chemistry' from them.

"A Place in Your World" , not trying to make it up, but this sounds Steve Morse. The intro at least reminds us to Steve Morse solo portfolio. "Lost Without You" is a lovely tunes, my favorite simple song from this album. You got original drum leading song, nice song writing on this one. "One Love Forever" , a sliding guitar song in folk dancing rhythm, interesting if you got these guys doing it. And at least one dark theme song in "Peaceful Harbor", this is kind of emotional ballad we have. And at least one epic for the ending. It's like the end of jamming session, "Cosmic Symphony" is a must material where Neal, Steve, Mike, Dave unleashed their musical passion, with an interruption of Casey ever haunting vocals.

Second Nature is their casual jamming materials we might expected. It's different from their debut, where song are more vocal in nature. Second Nature come as prog in front. Good news on that, a bit of down notes is we think this albums sounds too Neal-Mike projects. Hard to evade since the duo already in several projects, in Neal Morse band and Transtlantic. As ending note, we urge Portnoy to produced his other pet project too, The Winery Dogs.

12.9.14

It's been a while for the whole member of Symphony X come together and release new music. In the meantime, most of them are busily doing side projects. Mike LePond, is one of their busiest one. Mike then decided to pull out his very own solo album, bravely his small gang as "Mike LePond's Silent Assassins", self titled and released September 2014. He also bring along Michael Romeo for six seven string-ing the album, and also ,eyebrow-risingly, as drum programmer. What's wrong with hiring real drummer you ask, and how awesome to programmed the whole progressive metal album drum track you wondered.

This album shared the same style with Symphony X, the progressive part are lessened, substitute with more heavy to thrash metal. The opener "Apocalypse Rider" tells us that we should expected straight forward heavy driven guitars riffs rather than seeing some mind twisted chord progression ala Symphony X. I agree that we see a lot of American heavy metal on this song, something like Anvil crossover with Symphony X. Alan Tecchio vocals is close to Russel Allen, un-alarmed listener may thing that is Russel in charge. Take no mistake, Alan doing his job in great shape. After this heavy opener, "Red Death" begin to show whom is this album belong to. Mike LePond starts the song with his bass show off, many more through out the album. With a basic single pedal drum pattern, Red Death still played in the style of very-Anvil feel. More closer to the European power metal is "The Quest", minor feel and addition of violin/viola/cello parts, lengthy bass solo, brings us to the folk - power - prog territory. "The Outsider" is another song that highlighted lots of bass parts. "Masada" is majority played in acoustic setup, epic ballad in the style of Manowar combined with good old David Coverdale days. A couple of heavy driven songs in between and let's jump to the last track, "Oath and Honor" is the epic ending track. Longest track in the reflections of Helloween and typical European symphonic metal orchestration.

This is a bass-fronted album with quite wide choices of styles inside. It will well enjoyed by many fans ranging from prog-head, power metaller, and general heavy fans. And guitar shred lover also, for the sake of Michael Romeo and Mike Metal parts. The kind of bringing bass sounds to the front is what gives this album even more credit. Song writing in another factor to make this album heavy yet easy to listen. This is an excellent heavy / progressive metal album came in parallel to its creator fame, bassist of Symphony X Mike LePond.

9.9.14

This short duration of album is a brief showcase of Colombian guitarist Nicolas Waldo. Master Of The Universe happen to be his 5th full length albums according to Metal Encyclopaedia. In this brief essay, there is only one style needed to concern. Master of The Universe is none other than shred, shred and shred. There is no tasty chord progression as like any prog metaller, this is only accompaniment backing track and then Nicolas lay down his faster than lightspeed licks all over.

So, it's understandable if all track running at 160 bpm, then the whole song duration should be much lesser than those who play in 80, right isn't? From Space And Time right to lastly The Everlasting, there is only neo-classical arpeggios, sweep, tapping, and everything in between to fill in the lightspeed drum track. Stand out is the main title, Master Of The Universe, where the ecstasy of listening shred genre is here. Or maybe there is second styles here, shred acoustic tang, Prince of Peace in the end of the album comes with a mercy to our ear because of Nicolas also play us a sweet acoustic songs.

Master Of The Universe is for those who need to play loud guitar music to wake up his neighborhood. It's only run at 23 minutes where you will find it equal to listening one song of Dream Theater's A Season of Changes. If you like fast guitar and care less about other bull**** , this is the album to satisfy your need.

3.9.14

From the crowd of Italian blood shred guitarist, Fabrizio "Bicio" Leo is mostly under the radar. He seems enjoying more as sideman compared to Marco Sfogli, Simone Fiorletta, Francesco Fareri, Daniele Liverani and so on. No mistakes, this guy has numbers of excellent port folio under his possession. In 2000s, Mike Varney called regarding his works sent to Mike. Thus the creation of Fabrizio first album "Cutaway" in 2006 that continued to "Mr. Malusardi" in 2011. If you haven't heard about those then check it now. For his latest work, is "Spectrum of My Past". Fabrizio third album was not made in Shrapnel any more, a new label Jellybeards records instead. The album also support by Alex Argento, Italiano shred keyboardist.

The styles and feels are exactly twin brother to the album "Mr. Malusardi". Structure are kind of progressive, very dynamics and tons of shreds. The styles from standard minor progressive feel in the first track all the way ended with latin beat in "Samba C". Here a quick styles and comments on all tracks:

Yossi Sassi strengthened his feet as leading Oriental prog guitar specialist in recent days. After his solo album Melting Clock got widely accepted by fans, the sequel is coming. Desert Butterflies is his second solo album, more oriental music from the orphaned Holy Land that divided the world into three factions today. Instead of going to pursue more 'metal' aspect, Yossi choose the 'folk' aspect that he need to play more. This is the correct path that many fans will also rejoice. Desert Butterflies is full of showcase of Israeli - Mid Eastern influences music, all wrapped in modern guitar instrumental form.

A simple phrases got developed more and more in the opening title, "Orient Sun". The clean acoustic guitar sounds mimic what we might listen when we are in the middle of desert. If that repetitive melody too hypnotizing , the second one is a dance on the wild. "Fata Morgana" is completely going to 'swing' your imagination with angelic desert belly dancers. Yossi masterful the combination of many folk instruments and traditional 'choirs' to raise even more desert-like effects. We then move closer to the West with "Neo Quest", this one has tasty groove and a light oriental musics. "Azadi" is of course basically Mid Eastern music re-interpreted in modern piano and guitars playing. A nice piece to show how well versed he is in piano also. "Believe" is a lyrics composition, it is mixed in foreign language and English to exemplify its great "oriental" feel. The singer is Mariangela Demurtas of Tristania. "Desert Butterfly" is thick dune theme, but this one bring us closer to the Wild West. In "Azul" we got the very basic blending between melodic guitar shredding and oriental music. "Cocoon" is the only second lyric song to end the album.

It is also only natural that the Oriental will then meet with the Exotic. Marty Friedman starts his collaboration with Yossi in live jammin' and then landed his "Far Eastern" licks to Yossi on this album. There are another dozens of musicians involved to make this album as rich as possible. If you like guitar, you will not pass this album. Not everybody's diet but this is the gems you'll happy to explore.